Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro (R) looks at a portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the conmemoration of the 1992 failed coup led by Chavez, who was an army lieutenant colonel, against then president Carlos Andres Perez, in Caracas, on February 4, 2013. Ailing President Hugo Chavez, who had cancer surgery in December, is doing much better and recovering, Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in remarks published Monday. AFP PHOTO/Juan BARRETO (Photo credit should read JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro looks at a portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the commemoration of the 1992 failed coup led by Chavez, who was an army lieutenant colonel, against then president Carlos Andres Perez, in Caracas, on Feb. 4, 2013. (credit: JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

CARACAS, Venezuela (CBSDC/AP) — Venezuela’s vice president says a United States diplomat will be expelled from the country on claims he was trying to destabilize the country.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro says an American Air Force attaché had been spying on the Venezuelan military and that he has 24 hours to leave the country.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Greg Adams told The Associated Press that the attaché identified is David Delmonaco.

“I’m sure we will be formulating some sort of response from Washington,” Adams said.

Maduro also made claims that “historic enemies” of Venezuela were behind President Hugo Chavez’s cancer.

“Chavez was attacked with this disease,” Maduro said, according to Al Jazeera. “The historic enemies of this nation looked for how to harm the health of our commander.”

Maduro added that Chavez is in “very delicate” health following December’s cancer surgery.